Axel Gear
Axel Gear (アクセルギア Akuseru Gia) is the main and recurring antagonist in the Rocket Knight Series and poses as the rival of Sparkster. Appearance Rocket Knight Adventures Axel Gear's body is mostly covered in his armor. The only parts visible are his face, ears, tail, and some strands of blonde hair. His fur is a light brown color and a fine scar is visible on his left cheek. The parts of his armor are purple and under it he wears a red flight suit. His helmet covers just the upper half of his face and the visor has a lengthy form that covers his nose when it is lowered. The shoulder plates of his armor are broad and each of them has two pointy ends; one points upward and the other downward. Axel wears gauntlets with bracers. His boots cover everything up to his knees and the ends on his feet are pointed and point slightly upward. His rocket pack consists of three rockets colored red with grey exhaust pipes strapped on his back. There are openings at the end of the rockets for pressure balance. Axel Gear possesses a long sword with a thin blade. On the crossguard are three red gems; the one in the middle is the largest and a blue one is on the pommel. Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2 Axel Gear's appearance was not changed much since his debut. Most of them are changes to his color palette and the overall art style. His rocket pack is colored orange and lacks the openings for pressure balance. His gauntlets are grey and his flight suit is a lighter shade of red. His sword has just two gems instead of four. One is on the crossguard and the other one is located on the pommel. Sparkster (SNES) Axel Gear's look is not much different than his Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2 appearance. There are a few noticeable differences, however: *His gauntlets look different and are light purple. *His rocket pack resembles the one in Rocket Knight Adventures. *His scar is missing. Rocket Knight (2010) Axel Gear's appearance got an overhaul in this game and looks vastly different than in the previous games. Like previously the only things which are not covered by his armor are his ears, face, tail, and hair. His fur is still light brown and instead of having a scar on his left cheek he has a scar with several stitches. His armor is red and brown, although the color is flaking off, and his flight suit is black. His helmet is open on the top so his black hair is visible. The visor is flatter and shorter than his previous one. His shoulder plates are now flat and angled with one spike on each plate. There is also a spike on each of his gauntlets at the wrists. His boots cover his feet and shins. Both boots have two spikes, one on each side. His rocket pack consists of two rockets with two wings on each side. the pack is grey, but the tips of the wings are red. The sword of Axel Gear is a broad flame-bladed sword with a light purple stint. Near the tip of the blade is a red gem. The blade is connected to the crossguard with a bigger red gem and both gems are connected with a blue streak. The grip itself is in the same purple color as the sword. At the pommel are several cables of different color which connect the sword with his rocket pack. Personality Axel Gear is a ruthless figure with nothing else in mind but his own selfish goals, showing no regrets in kidnapping one of the princesses to blackmail their respective fathers for his own purposes, or killing Mifune Sanjulo to get his hands on the Secret Book of Rocket Knights. He is a traitorous being, not only betraying the Kingdom of Zephyrus but also planning a rebellion to overthrow the late ruler of Devotindos Empire--Emperor Devligus Devotindos. His lack of loyalty towards everyone makes him untrustworthy in all regards as he clearly only cares about himself and all the ways he could achieve his goals, even if it means to harm innocent people or teaming up with other kingdoms that want to conquer the Kingdom of Zephyrus or Eginasem. Despite his disloyal trait, he is very competent in what he is doing which is the main reason why he gets hired. His rivalry with Sparkster is not to be taken lightly. While the Black Knight was beaten several times it only fueled his desire to grow stronger and finding more and more ways to overthrow the Rocket Knight--Even if it means to use a big variety of gadgets just to have a greater advantage. But as much as he seems to despise Sparkster he also has no shame in provoking, taunting and stealing the spotlight from him whenever he is able of doing so. History Prior to Rocket Knight Adventures There is not much information about Axel Gear's past, rendering his relationship with Princess Sherry, Sparkster, and Mifune Sanjulo rather vague. He once was a part of the Rocket Knights before he decided to betray the Kingdom of Zephyrus. During his betrayal, he not only stole the Secret Book of Rocket Knights but also killed Mifune Sanjulo, Sparkster's foster-father and master. This incident resulted in his exile from Zephyrus, thus making him the Black Knight that he is known for today. Rocket Knight Adventures Axel Gear aids the Imperial Army of Devotindos at their attempt to conquer the Kingdom of Zephyrus. He kidnaps Princess Sherry, King Zephyrus' only daughter, and uses her to blackmail the king to hand over the "Key to the Seal" that is needed to gain control over the Pig Star, a giant space station with immense destruction power. Throughout the events of the game, Axel not only takes care of Princess Sherry to deliver her safely to the Devotindos Empire, but he also challenges Sparkster on various occasions to give Emperor Devligus Devotindos, the current ruler over Devotindos Empire, enough time to reach the Pig Star. Despite his partnership with Emperor Devligus Devotindos Axel is scheming to start a rebellion as soon as Sparkster and King Zephyrus are out of the way, but his plans get ultimately foiled during his last fight against Sparkster on the Pig Star. Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2 5 years after the downfall of Emperor Devligus Devotindos Axel returned to cause havoc, this time siding with Gedol Empire, the magical kingdom ruled by King Gedol. Before the main events of the game, he was in search of the 7 "Keys to the Seals", powerful and mystical swords that grant great power to the one who was able to collect them all and ran into Sparkster who was stumbling over the sword by accident. A fight between the two knights triggers, but Axel loses it.* After Sparkster returned to the Kingdom of Zephyrus to accompany Princess Sherry and Princess Cherry to a peaceful walk outside of the kingdom the Black Knight strikes again, kidnapping Princess Cherry to hold her hostage at Gedol Castle and to blackmail the royal family of Zephyrus. As in the previous game Axel Gear will be the standing in Sparkster's way before he has the chance to fight against King Gedol. This time, however, he uses one of the 7 "Keys to the Seals" swords. As soon as Axel is defeated he will flee the scene while leaving behind the last of the collectible swords. *'Important Note:' The fight against Axel Gear is optional. The player can skip the event and lose the battle if they decide to accept Axel's challenge, but this means that the sword won't be collected, making the 'True Ending' of the game unavailable. Sparkster (SNES) Important Note: This title takes place after the events of Rocket Knight Adventures and serves as an Alternate Timeline. It has no connection to the events of Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2 and its later sequel Rocket Knight. It is, however, still considered as Canon, but follows a different path for the Franchise. A few years after the downfall of Emperor Devligus Devotindos Axel Gear joins the Wolf Army that was led by Generalissimo Lioness to start a coup d'état against the Kingdom of Eginasem. He helps kidnapping Princess Flora, the daughter of King Eginasem, to get their hands on a pendant that is known to protect the peace on Planet Elhorn. Axel Gear greets Sparkster's arrival in Noisy Toys by playing the pipe organ before starting their battle, but the Black Knight loses it. Before Sparkster is able to reach the Orbital Fortress he has to deal with Axel once again, this time during a fight within their Powered Gear. This battle, like the previous one, ends in Axel's defeat. Rocket Knight (2010) After the defeat of King Gedol 15 years ago Axel Gear returned to join forces with the Devotindos Empire, which is now led by General Sweinhart. After a truce was made with King Zephyrus most of the people of Devotindos moved into Zephyrus. At some point within the story, Sparkster left Zephyrus, making way for the Black Knight to be entitled to the new leader of Rocket Knights. Sparkster, fighting through the invasion of the Wolf Kingdom, tried to gain access to the Kingdom of Zephyrus, but the gates were closed by Axel Gear to prevent him getting any further. They had a short fight above the Tree Tops which Axel was losing, forcing him to retreat for the while being. The two knights meet again deeper inside of the Zephyrian City, nearly starting another battle, but they got interrupted when the Forest Shredder made its way into the city. Though Sparkster managed to destroy it he got stuck under its head, burying him underneath it. Axel used this unlucky event for himself by acting like he was the one stopping the Forest Shredder. Frightened by the sudden attack by the Mountain Wolves General Sweinhart declared that the Devotindos Army would aid the Zephyrian Army to protect their homeland from any kind of harm. From this event on Axel Gear stood more in the background. Just as soon as Sparkster defeated the king of the Wolf Kingdom, Ulfgar the Merciless, Axel Gear and General Sweinhart arrived at the kingdom themselves. They captured the Rocket Knight and threw him into a deep abyss which led him to the secret laboratory of Devotindos Empire. Before leaving the laboratory, which was close to blowing up, Sparkster and Axel Gear had their final fight which Axel, once again, loses. The fate of Axel Gear is unknown since. Last of the Rocket Knights (Comic Series) Nothing much is known about Axel Gear's role in the comic series, as the sequel to the comic has been canceled. Judging the sample pages that were made public by comic artist Keith Page Axel Gear was working together with King Gedol to gain control over some sort of mystic temple. Game Appearances *''Rocket Knight Adventures'' (1993) *''Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2'' (1994) *''Sparkster (SNES)'' (1994) *''Rocket Knight'' (2010) Other Appearances *''Last of the Rocket Knights'' Issue #2 (1995, unreleased) Trivia *Axel Gear's hair color is inconsistent between his official artworks and in-game sprites: **In Rocket Knight Adventures, he keeps his blonde hair like in the official artwork. **In Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2, his in-game sprite has red/orange hair. **In Sparkster (SNES), his in-game sprite has green hair. **In an earlier promotional artwork, he had not only white hair but also a brown flight suit and black armor. ***Only Rocket Knight stays consistent between his official artwork and in-game model, depicting him both with black hair. *The scar placement seems to be as inconsistent as his hair color: **His scar remains on his left cheek in Rocket Knight Adventures, Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2, and Rocket Knight (though the latter is now a scar with several stitches). **It is completely missing in the official artwork for Sparkster (SNES). This may be the result of a coloring error, as the game itself is still connected to the events of Rocket Knight Adventures. **Interestingly, the scar appears on the right side of his face in most of the Rocket Knight official artworks. This, however, is a result of flipping an image horizontally. *In Noisy Toys, the 6th stage of Sparkster (SNES), he was shown playing the pipe organ before the battle against him begins. *It is possible to unlock an Axel Gear skin for Sparkster in Rocket Knight if you were able to beat the Arcade Mode on Hard Difficulty. *While not being a complete translation error within the manuals, Axel's name has been spelled differently from time to time, changing from "Axle Gear" to "Axel Gear" and vice-versa. **In Japanese "Axel", "Axle", and "Axl" are written in the exact same Katakana characters (アクセル = A Ku Se Ru), something that makes it difficult to say if "Axel", "Axle" or "Axl" was the spelling Konami was going for. ***However, with the release of Rocket Knight in 2010 "Axel Gear" has been confirmed to be the official spelling of his name. *According to some Developer Blog postings back from 2010 Axel Gear's design for Rocket Knight was supposed to be more pirate-like.Developer Blog talking about earlier Character Concept ideas & other trivia **It is also stated that Axel Gear and Princess Cherry were dating each other. *Axel Gear's sword of the classic games seems to be inspired by the Xiphos, an ancient greek shortsword, as the shape of the blades share a strong similarity with each other.Xiphos graphic showing different designs References Category:Characters Category:Villains Category:Males Category:Characters with unknown fates